DMM CH. 18

….15 min. later….

With a near permanent scowl on his face, Draco sat in his crib, arms crossed and eyes narrowed. He had already thrown everything out of his crib in order to hit his guardian during the first few minutes, leaving him utterly bored with no means of escape. "Well, this is just bloody fantastic! Not only is this insulting, infuriating, and degrading, not to mention boring, useless, a waste of time…what was my point again? OH Yah, but it is also absolutely HUMILIATING! How was I supposed to know that the Mudblood Bitch would go through with this? Then again, when did she even grow a backbone?" Draco lay back down on his back. Rubbing over his left eye, he remembered the sucker punch from third year. "Merlin, I'm losing what's left of my sanity!"

"Merlin, I'm losing what's left of my sanity!" Hermione thought as she started going through the last unsearched room, the play room, for the playpen instructions. It was times like these that got her wondering if the Headmaster made things overly complicated for his own twisted amusement. Exactly how hard was it to leave the playpen instructions together with the actual playpen? Scanning through a few papers on one of the tables, the Gryffindor sighed in frustration at another failed attempt to find those damn directions. Out of nowhere, again, a note, no, a packet popped into her hand. Holding her breath, she read the top lines in anticipation.

^lines^

Pack&Play Setup

Step By Step Directions

English Version

end lines^

Practically squealing in delight, Hermione literally ran into the living room to start on the playpen. As she passed the bedroom door, the girl heard the distinct sound of soft sniffles slipping through the slits. Slowing down, she took a quick glance at the clock as she made her way into the kitchen. "28 minutes already!" Sighing as she placed the directions down on the table, the girl looked back at the bedroom door. "Hopefully this small punishment will stop his behavior for a little while… oh who am I kidding? Oh well, a girl can dream. Maybe we should go over a few rules before anything else has a chance to happen. Consistency is key." With at in mind, Hermione made her way back to the bedroom to collect her wayward ward.

"This is in no possible way fair! Why should I be put in this infernal holding cell as punishment, if you can even call it that! I'm the injured party here! See how long the mudblood would last if she were suddenly forced into nappies again!" Draco continued his ranting in his mind, not even noticing Hermione enter the room, and still didn't notice until she was right in front of him with her hands bringing the crib bars down. Upon him finally spotting her, his mind went into overdrive with the most confusing thoughts of the situation, the girl, and the amount of time that he had actually spent in his 'miniature holding cell'. Cocking his head to one side, his guardian took in one of the moments where the tiny tot was at a complete loss, or at least appeared to be.

Leaning slightly into the crib itself, Hermione mentally went over the few rules she had compiled in the little time she had beforehand. "Come on Hermione, you can do this. There are only three main rules, so it shouldn't be too hard for him to remember them, especially since he has all of his memories. You just have to word it right, that's all!" Taking a large breathe, she looked directly into the tot's eyes before beginning. "Draco, I know that we have been at each other's necks since our first year," she started. The mini-Malfoy merely rolled his eyes, but nodded along, giving her the go ahead to continue. "But in order for us to get through this situation, we are going to half to put the past behind us, or at least form some sort of truce or understanding. Unfortunately, it will take roughly around three months to get you back to your normal self," A sharp gasp escaped the toddler's lips. "So I'm going to try to make this as painless as possible for you to bare, but there must be balance. While we are stuck together during the three months, I have only three rules, at the moment, to be followed at all times. The first and foremost is obedience, meaning do as you are told to do, or not do, such as what I told you after your earlier escapade."

Emotions flashed across Draco's face like lightning. Understanding, hope, confusion, anger, frustration, fear, guilt, regret, embarrassment, etc. His guardian was practically reading him like a book, only problem was that it was in a different language.

"The second of the three is honesty. That one won't be much of an issue until you are able to talk again, so we won't go into much detail on that one. The third, however, is the main one that we keep running into, respect."

Thinking about his actions earlier, the toddler couldn't help but let a little smirk play across his lips.

"You are to respect everyone, myself and yourself included. I am pretty sure that this is self-explanatory, am I right?" A nod went her way. "Then do you see why your actions earlier did not go unpunished?" Another nod came, only this time much slower. "If these rules are broken, a punishment will follow, but it will always fit the crime. Understand?" Still nodding. "Okay then. With the last rule, it goes both ways. I will do my best to always respect you in term, but will give you what you give me." Continuous nodding. "Now that that is over with, your time out is over as well, though I think a certain word is in order." She raised her eyebrow in his direction.

"Wait, she can't be serious! I am not going to apologies to her, hell I NEVER APOLOGIES!" Scowling in her direction, he shook his head angrily, stubbornly refusing to submit defeat.

"Well, I guess you want to stay in there a bit longer then, because you are not getting out of this crib until I here an apology from you." Slowly, the girl made to re-raise the bars, observing the tot's panicked expression out of the corner of her eye.

"NO! I want out of the damn thing!" Looking back at his guardian, he sighed, realizing there was only one way out. "Fine, it's just one word. All I have to do is say it. I don't have to actually mean it." Trying to get the syllables right, a slow "Aw-wee" made its way out of the child's lips.

Grinning in triumph, Hermione left the crib bars alone and quickly gathered the deaged tot in her arms. "Alrighty then. Consider that we have a fresh sleight. Now how's about we try to figure out how to set up that damned playpen? Dumbledore apparently forgot he had the instructions and just now popped them over." The toddler rolled his eyes, but nodded reluctantly. Anything was better than sitting there bored to death.

In the Headmaster's office…

As the confrontation between the troubled two took place, the Headmaster of Hogwarts paced around in his quarters/office, twinkle in the eyes and satisfied small smile on his face. Something was about to happen here in Hogwarts, and now all he had to do was wait.

HEY EVERYONE!

Okay, so I have finally finished with all of the main events this summer, so I may be able to write more (or probably just read and sleep more ^^').

THE ANSWER TO THE LAST RIDDLE WAS (insert drumroll)... A WEDDING RING! (insert applause)

NEW RIDDLE: Take one out and scratch my head, I am now black but once was red. What am I?

Now, I am just going to say (like i probably should have before ^^') that i absolutly suck at spelling and grammer (you probably noticed that already T.T)

REVIEWS MAKE ME HAPPY! HIT THE FRIKIN BLUE BUTTON PLZ! DO I NEED TO SHOW U GUYS A MAP? (plz review, i always enjoy them)